Road traffic kills an estimated one million hedgehogs in the UK each year, making it the most significant preventable cause of hedgehog mortality.
Hedgehogs killed on roads experience traumatic death from vehicle impact, which causes immediate death for animals directly struck and prolonged suffering for those clipped. The instinct to curl when threatened means hedgehogs that sense a vehicle approaching freeze rather than flee, maximising their exposure to the collision risk. Injured hedgehogs that escape die from internal injuries over hours to days without veterinary intervention. The welfare cost of road mortality, multiplied across potentially millions of individual animals per year, represents an enormous preventable welfare burden. Practical solutions including wildlife crossing structures and habitat management near roads have demonstrated effectiveness.